Communication systems are known to include a plurality of communication devices and supporting infrastructure. The communication devices include mobile radios, portable radios, cellular telephones, personal computers with wireless modems and/or personal digital assistants. A communication device may request service from the wireless infrastructure by transmitting an inbound signaling word ("ISW"). The inbound signaling word is received by the wireless infrastructure, which includes base stations, base station controllers and/or mobile switching centers, and processes the request. If the communication system is capable of supporting the request, and communication resources are available, the wireless infrastructure grants the request. When granted, the wireless infrastructure transmits an outbound signaling word ("OSW") to the requesting communication device informing the device that the request has been granted and which communication resources have been allocated to support the request. In addition, the wireless infrastructure transmits an outbound signaling word to other communication devices that were targeted as participants in the request.
The communication device may request voice services and/or data services. If the communication device is affiliated with a digital communication system, the digital communication system can process both voice and data requests. If, however, the communication device is affiliated with an analog wireless communication system, the analog system processes the voice requests while a separate data system processes the data requests. To provide seamless operation to the user, the controllers of the analog system interface with the data system. Alternatively, a voice system may dedicate a particular communication resource for data only communications. While the integration of voice and data systems and digital systems provide data and voice services for communication devices, the services provided generally are considered narrow-band services.
Narrow-band services are those that are processed on communication resources that have a limited amount of bandwidth. For example, a system in accordance with the APCO (Association of Public Safety Communication Officers) Project 25 standard utilizes 12.5 kHz channel spacing wherein each channel can process 9.6 kilobits per second of data. A system in accordance with the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, on the other hand, provides wider band services and channels having a 200 kHz channel spacing wherein each channel can support 270.833 kilobits per second of data. As such, communication devices that operate on wider-band systems do not participate in communications that occur on narrow-band systems, except that the communication devices may establish a one-to-one communication with other type devices. Thus, wide band communication devices do not participate in group, and other types of, communications with narrow band communication devices.
In addition to the lack of interoperability between wide-band communication systems and narrow-band communication systems, the federal communications commission has recently allocated UHF television channels 60 to 69 for public safety use. A portion of these new channels will include wide-band channels to facilitate modulation and techniques to enable higher bit rates for communications requiring higher speeds and more capacity.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for integrated processing of narrow-band and wide-band communications.